Opening remarks by Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Gala to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Korean American Family Service Center

2 May 2009
New York, N.Y.

Chairman Suh, Madam Choi and other Directors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you very much for the kind introduction, Chairman Suh, though I am not sure all the compliments are fully deserved. It is rather unfair to deliver a keynote speech at the end of an evening filled with much fun and laughter, especially when suffering from jet lag as I am. But given the seriousness of the work that we have all gathered this evening to support, I guess that my role is sound a little serious, and to discuss why the work is so important, and how it sits entirely within the international human rights framework that the United Nations has developed over the past six decades.

Let me begin by commending the work of the Korean American Family Service Center and its Directors and staff. It has been over half a year since I was first contacted about coming to this event to deliver some remarks. And during these months of preparations, I have been heartened by the energy and enthusiasm that have marked our exchanges over the phone and email. The importance you place on today’s celebration and the dedication and pride with which you serve the Center have been hard to miss. So I say with all sincerity how delighted I am to be here with you today as you mark the 19th anniversary of the Korean American Family Service Center.

Grass-roots, non-governmental organizations such as KAFSC are at the front lines of social change - raising hope, touching lives one by one, and empowering women and families to live their lives free from violence, and free from the threat and fear of violence. They represent the very best of civic activism that is vital to the propagation of a culture of human rights and equality around the world, which has been a core mission of the United Nations over the past six decades since its founding.

Having proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948, the United Nations has been working hard to codify the rights identified in the Declaration into legally binding treaties as well as reflecting them in non-binding norms, such as declarations and resolutions. Indeed, the rich body of human rights norms and standards that has been generated is one of the most important and lasting accomplishments of the United Nations. However, these norms and standards mean little if they are not acted upon and given effect, and that depends on the actors on the ground, such as government authorities who have the primary responsibility to implement the standards, and the civil society actors who hold the government accountable for their actions or the lack thereof to promote and protect the human rights of their citizens and others who live under its jurisdiction.

Indeed, there is a huge implementation gap between the norms and the reality. Either they are not adopted or not implemented. Commitments made by governments before the international community are not translated into concrete action that would have a significant impact on the enjoyment by everyday people of their human rights.

This is where your work as NGOs and our work at the UN is linked. We need to strengthen the ties between the norm-setting work at the global forum of the UN, and the activism of groups that endeavor to improve the lives of women and men around the world. Your experience at the ground level has to inform our thinking at the international policy level for us to be relevant and effective. And we need you to sound the alarm when international standards are being shunned, and we need your help in holding governments accountable. Meanwhile, the international norms and standards are tools that should guide the work of civil society actors and empower them in their engagement with officialdom and others in positions of responsibility to society.

Of all international human rights treaties that the United Nations has drafted and put into force during the past decades, most relevant to the work of the KAFSC would be the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Both are vital tools for organizations that work for healthy families and healthy lives, based on full respect for equality between women and men, girls and boys.

CEDAW sets forth international legal standards to protect and promote women’s rights. Another key guidance is the comprehensive policy document, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which was adopted in 1995 at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, and sets forth a vision of the way forward towards gender equality and the realization of the full set of rights for women. That being said, women’s rights organizations and defenders of children’s rights sometimes miss the opportunity to use the full arsenal of human rights instruments to argue their cause. It must be underlined that while CEDAW and CRC have been elaborated to provide protection for specific groups, all other fundamental human rights treaties contain explicit equality and non-discrimination clauses. The result is an extensive legal basis for promoting women’s and children’s rights that should be fully exploited, whether with respect to women migrant workers or multiple forms of discrimination etc.

Yet despite much of the global consensus on standards and strategies, gender equality remains a distant goal and the reality on the ground more often than not is one of deep-seated discrimination against women and the violation of their basic human rights. It is not a coincidence that CEDAW remains the one human rights treaty with the highest number of reservations expressed by ratifying State parties with respect to national implementation. In particular, violence against women in all of its ugly forms occurs in pandemic proportions in many corners of the world, according to the World Health Organization, UNIFEM (UN Development Fund for Women), UN peace missions, and the field presences of our office, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Every day around the world, in developed and developing countries alike, women are getting raped, beaten and killed, often with impunity. In countries torn by conflict, rape is often used as a weapon by the warring parties. In post-conflict societies, the battle may have died down, but mass sexual violence continues. In countries at peace, economic hard-times and other societal stress typically lead to rising rates of domestic and other forms of violence against women. At the same time, women continue to be overrepresented among the poorest segments of societies and the lack of enjoyment of equal economic and social rights often constitute an additional obstacle against women’s effective access to justice. In short, we still live in a global culture, which differs in its specifics from country to country, but which generally devalues women and tolerates, or even promotes, violence against women.

Violence against women is a fundamental human rights violation, and it has explicitly been recognized as a form of discrimination. What that means in practical terms is that violence against women is not a private matter, also when perpetrated in the sphere of the family. It is a public issue and the international legal framework establishes the responsibility of the state to ensure that effective measures of protection are in place and that perpetrators are prosecuted and brought to justice.

Beyond the crime that it is, violence against women has a broader social dimension, and states also have an obligation to address this dimension as well. Article 5 of CEDAW calls on States to take measures “to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.” In short, elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in all spheres must be the clear goal.

This type of proactive social intervention by states is critical to ending violence against women, and must be continuously pressed for by organizations working for women’s rights. Violence against women is not about women. It’s about men, and families, and communities, and it has to be addressed at that level, not only by governments but also by individuals and groups in positions of leadership, so as to promote new role models for men and women, and new frameworks for interpersonal and family interactions that are based on equality between men and women, boys and girls.

The United States is one of a handful of countries that have yet to ratify CEDAW or the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Indeed, the US has traditionally been cool about embracing international standards. The spirit of exceptionalism has prevented the most powerful country in the world from joining the global consensus on many fronts. This should not prevent KAFSC and others to use CEDAW and other international standards as guidance and tools. But your strident voice is also needed in the long-standing call upon the United States government to ratify these and other international human rights treaties. Under a new administration that has taken a more forthcoming and cooperative stance vis-à-vis the international community and the United Nations, and with the active push from organizations such as the KAFSC, I am very hopeful that it will not be long before the United States will come to formally embrace CEDAW and the other key international human rights treaties that it has yet to become party to.

In concluding, I would like to offer my warmest compliments to KAFSC and all who have contributed to its growth and good work over the past 19 years. As you go forth into the future to raise hope and transform lives, you have working on your side the on-going endeavors by those of us who serve in the United Nations to root out violence against women, realize gender equality, and advance the culture of human rights around the world.

Thank you for your kind attention.